Palmerston North author Denis Dwyer pens novel on retirement living

Palmerston North author Denis Dwyer says his first novel, The Walking Frame War, provides an empathetic look at ageing. Photo / Judith Lacy

Rose Finch has a lot on her clipboard - keeping her rest home open, fending off an unscrupulous property developer and dealing with her greedy adult children.

Denis Dwyer, who created Rose, surely must have had a lot on his keyboard as he wrote his first novel, The Walking Frame War, with its dozens of characters.

But the Palmerston North author brushes off this reporter’s wonder at how he did it.

Dwyer started with the core characters and says as he wrote the other characters fell into his vision.

After a while, he became so familiar with the characters that they gave him ideas about what would happen next. The residents came alive for him.

Dwyer turns 80 next month. He is a great reader and the people he meets through books are sometimes as real to him as those in real life.

Dwyer had a words-focused career as a secondary school teacher, in corporate communications, as a subeditor at the Manawatū Standard, and then academic director at English Teaching College.

He drew on a range of experiences to create the comings and goings at Sunset Rest Home: visiting his brother in a rest home, spending 10 days in hospital in July 2022, and growing up with three generations at times under the same roof. His wife Dale was a registered nurse.

One of Dwyer’s grandmothers lived to her mid-90s. He remembers visiting her in a rest home that had a huge room with the residents - nearly all women - sitting around the perimeter.

“When I walked in suddenly there were 18, 19 pairs of eyes looking at me.”

He did not like the passivity of the atmosphere and wonders if rest homes should be called active homes instead.

“The worst thing people can do really is just sit around all day.”

The Walking Frame War touches on some of the issues facing rest homes such as residents needing increased levels of care, lack of funding, and lack of beds.

Dwyer says he also tried to keep the book lighthearted as most people don’t want a heavy read.

“A life without humour would be awful.”

Humour is a wonderful way to connect people. “They say it’s the best medicine and I agree with that. We all feel better after a good laugh.”

He enjoyed writing the book and thought people would enjoy reading it.

Dwyer has three children - Michelle, David and Katie to whom the book is dedicated, plus five grandchildren.

The cover of Denis Dwyer's first novel, his seventh published book.

He and Dale moved to Palmerston North from Dunedin in 1990 and are very happy here.

Dwyer describes himself as a staunch supporter of Palmerston North with its climate that doesn’t tend to extremes, its range of cafes, housing, walking places and movie theatres, plus its central location.

“You can decide spontaneously to go to a movie and you can be sitting in the theatre within 15 minutes, you can’t really say that with Auckland or Wellington.”

Dwyer volunteers at the New Zealand Rugby Museum. He says social contact is important when you retire as the friendship you received through work is suddenly not there.

He says being embittered is not a good way to end your days. Life is much more fulfilling if you are generous in outlook and not holding old grudges.

He is working on his second novel. Since 2015, he has had six non-fiction books published on topics as diverse as rugby legend Billy Wallace and New Zealand day walks.